Core

• 1: Cache
• 2: Database
• 3: Factoryinsight
• 4: Grafana
• 5: Kafka Bridge
• 6: Kafka Broker
• 7: Kafka Console
• 8: Kafka to Postgresql
• 9: MQTT Bridge
• 10: MQTT Broker
• 11: MQTT Kafka Bridge
• 12: Node-RED
• 13: Sensorconnect

1 - Cache

The cache in the United Manufacturing Hub is Redis, a key-value store that is used as a cache for the other microservices.

How it works

Recently used data is stored in the cache to reduce the load on the database. All the microservices that need to access the database will first check if the data is available in the cache. If it is, it will be used, otherwise the microservice will query the database and store the result in the cache.

By default, Redis is configured to run in standalone mode, which means that it will only have one master node.

Kubernetes resources

• StatefulSet: united-manufacturing-hub-redis-master
• Service:
  • Internal ClusterIP:
    • Redis: united-manufacturing-hub-redis-master at port 6379
    • Headless: united-manufacturing-hub-redis-headless at port 6379
    • Metrics: united-manufacturing-hub-redis-metrics at port 6379
• ConfigMap:
  • Configuration: united-manufacturing-hub-redis-configuration
  • Health: united-manufacturing-hub-redis-health
  • Scripts: united-manufacturing-hub-redis-scripts
• Secret: redis-secret
• PersistentVolumeClaim: redis-data-united-manufacturing-hub-redis-master-0

Configuration

You shouldn’t need to configure the cache manually, as it’s configured automatically when the cluster is deployed. However, if you need to change the configuration, you can do it by editing the redis section of the Helm chart values file.

You can consult the Bitnami Redis chart for more information about the available configuration options.

Environment variables

2 - Database

The database microservice is the central component of the United Manufacturing Hub and is based on TimescaleDB, an open-source relational database built for handling time-series data. TimescaleDB is designed to provide scalable and efficient storage, processing, and analysis of time-series data.

You can find more information on the datamodel of the database in the Data Model section, and read about the choice to use TimescaleDB in the blog article.

How it works

When deployed, the database microservice will create two databases, with the related usernames and passwords:

• grafana: This database is used by Grafana to store the dashboards and other data.
• factoryinsight: This database is the main database of the United Manufacturing Hub. It contains all the data that is collected by the microservices.

Then, it creates the tables based on the database schema.

If you want to learn more about how TimescaleDB works, you can read the TimescaleDB documentation.

Kubernetes resources

• StatefulSet: united-manufacturing-hub-timescaledb
• Service:
  • Internal ClusterIP for the replicas: united-manufacturing-hub-replica at port 5432
  • Internal ClusterIP for the config: united-manufacturing-hub-config at port 8008
  • External LoadBalancer: united-manufacturing-hub at port 5432
• ConfigMap:
  • Patroni: united-manufacturing-hub-timescaledb-patroni
  • Post init: timescale-post-init
  • Postgres BackRest: united-manufacturing-hub-timescaledb-pgbackrest
  • Scripts: united-manufacturing-hub-timescaledb-scripts
• Secret:
  • Certificate: united-manufacturing-hub-certificate
  • Patroni credentials: united-manufacturing-hub-credentials
  • Users passwords: timescale-post-init-pw
• PersistentVolumeClaim:
  • Data: storage-volume-united-manufacturing-hub-timescaledb-0
  • WAL-E: wal-volume-united-manufacturing-hub-timescaledb-0

Configuration

There is only one parameter that usually needs to be changed: the password used to connect to the database. To do so, set the value of the db_password key in the _000_commonConfig.datastorage section of the Helm chart values file.

Environment variables

3 - Factoryinsight

Factoryinsight is a microservice that provides a set of REST APIs to access the data from the database. It is particularly useful to calculate the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the factories.

How it works

Factoryinsight exposes REST APIs to access the data from the database or calculate the KPIs. By default, it’s only accessible from the internal network of the cluster, but it can be configured to be accessible from the external network.

The APIs require authentication, that can be ehither a Basic Auth or a Bearer token. Both of these can be found in the Secret factoryinsight-secret.

API documentation

Kubernetes resources

• Deployment: united-manufacturing-hub-factoryinsight-deployment
• Service:
  • Internal ClusterIP: united-manufacturing-hub-factoryinsight-service at port 80
  • External : Access factoryinsight outside the cluster
• Secret: factoryinsight-secret

Configuration

You shouldn’t need to configure Factoryinsight manually, as it’s configured automatically when the cluster is deployed. However, if you need to change the configuration, you can do it by editing the factoryinsight section of the Helm chart values file.

Environment variables

4 - Grafana

The grafana microservice is a web application that provides visualization and analytics capabilities. Grafana allows you to query, visualize, alert on and understand your metrics no matter where they are stored.

It has a rich ecosystem of plugins that allow you to extend its functionality beyond the core features.

How it works

Grafana is a web application that can be accessed through a web browser. It let’s you create dashboards that can be used to visualize data from the database.

Thanks to some custom datasource plugins, Grafana can use the various APIs of the United Manufacturing Hub to query the database and display useful information.

Kubernetes resources

• Deployment: united-manufacturing-hub-grafana
• Service:
  • External LoadBalancer: united-manufacturing-hub-grafana at port 8080
• ConfigMap: united-manufacturing-hub-grafana
• Secret: grafana-secret
• PersistentVolumeClaim: united-manufacturing-hub-grafana

Configuration

Grafana is configured through its user interface. The default credentials are found in the grafana-secret Secret.

The Grafana installation that is provided by the United Manufacturing Hub is shipped with a set of preinstalled plugins:

• ACE.SVG by Andrew Rodgers
• Button Panel by CloudSpout LLC
• Button Panel by UMH Systems Gmbh
• Discrete by Natel Energy
• Dynamic Text by Marcus Olsson
• FlowCharting by agent
• Pareto Chart by isaozler
• Pie Chart (old) by Grafana Labs
• Timepicker Buttons Panel by williamvenner
• UMH Datasource by UMH Systems Gmbh
• UMH Datasource v2 by UMH Systems Gmbh
• Untimely by factry
• Worldmap Panel by Grafana Labs

Environment variables

5 - Kafka Bridge

Kafka-bridge is a microservice that connects two Kafka brokers and forwards messages between them. It is used to connect the local broker of the edge computer with the remote broker on the server.

How it works

This microservice has two ways of operation:

• High Integrity: This mode is used for topics that are critical for the user. It is garanteed that no messages are lost. This is achieved by committing the message only after it has been successfully inserted into the database. Ususally all the topics are forwarded in this mode, except for processValue, processValueString and raw messages.
• High Throughput: This mode is used for topics that are not critical for the user. They are forwarded as fast as possible, but it is possible that messages are lost, for example if the database struggles to keep up. Usually only the processValue, processValueString and raw messages are forwarded in this mode.

Kubernetes resources

• Deployment: united-manufacturing-hub-kafkabridge
• Secret:
  • Local broker: united-manufacturing-hub-kafkabridge-secrets-local
  • Remote broker: united-manufacturing-hub-kafkabridge-secrets-remote

Configuration

You can configure the kafka-bridge microservice by setting the following values in the _000_commonConfig.kafkaBridge section of the Helm chart values file.

  kafkaBridge:
    enabled: true
    remotebootstrapServer: ""
    topicmap:
      - bidirectional: false
        name: HighIntegrity
        send_direction: to_remote
        topic: ^ia\..+\..+\..+\.((addMaintenanceActivity)|(addOrder)|(addParentToChild)|(addProduct)|(addShift)|(count)|(deleteShiftByAssetIdAndBeginTimestamp)|(deleteShiftById)|(endOrder)|(modifyProducedPieces)|(modifyState)|(productTag)|(productTagString)|(recommendation)|(scrapCount)|(startOrder)|(state)|(uniqueProduct)|(scrapUniqueProduct))$
      - bidirectional: false
        name: HighThroughput
        send_direction: to_remote
        topic: ^ia\..+\..+\..+\.(processValue).*$

Topic Map schema

The topic map is a list of objects, each object represents a topic (or a set of topics) that should be forwarded. The following JSON schema describes the structure of the topic map:

{
    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema",
    "type": "array",
    "title": "Kafka Topic Map",
    "description": "This schema validates valid Kafka topic maps.",
    "default": [],
    "additionalItems": true,
    "items": {
        "$id": "#/items",
        "anyOf": [
            {
                "$id": "#/items/anyOf/0",
                "type": "object",
                "title": "Unidirectional Kafka Topic Map with send direction",
                "description": "This schema validates entries, that are unidirectional and have a send direction.",
                "default": {},
                "examples": [
                    {
                        "name": "HighIntegrity",
                        "topic": "^ia\\..+\\..+\\..+\\.(?!processValue).+$",
                        "bidirectional": false,
                        "send_direction": "to_remote"
                    }
                ],
                "required": [
                    "name",
                    "topic",
                    "bidirectional",
                    "send_direction"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "name": {
                        "$id": "#/items/anyOf/0/properties/name",
                        "type": "string",
                        "title": "Entry Name",
                        "description": "Name of the map entry, only used for logging & tracing.",
                        "default": "",
                        "examples": [
                            "HighIntegrity"
                        ]
                    },
                    "topic": {
                        "$id": "#/items/anyOf/0/properties/topic",
                        "type": "string",
                        "title": "The topic to listen on",
                        "description": "The topic to listen on, this can be a regular expression.",
                        "default": "",
                        "examples": [
                            "^ia\\..+\\..+\\..+\\.(?!processValue).+$"
                        ]
                    },
                    "bidirectional": {
                        "$id": "#/items/anyOf/0/properties/bidirectional",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "title": "Is the transfer bidirectional?",
                        "description": "When set to true, the bridge will consume and produce from both brokers",
                        "default": false,
                        "examples": [
                            false
                        ]
                    },
                    "send_direction": {
                        "$id": "#/items/anyOf/0/properties/send_direction",
                        "type": "string",
                        "title": "Send direction",
                        "description": "Can be either 'to_remote' or 'to_local'",
                        "default": "",
                        "examples": [
                            "to_remote",
                            "to_local"
                        ]
                    }
                },
                "additionalProperties": true
            },
            {
                "$id": "#/items/anyOf/1",
                "type": "object",
                "title": "Bi-directional Kafka Topic Map with send direction",
                "description": "This schema validates entries, that are bi-directional.",
                "default": {},
                "examples": [
                    {
                        "name": "HighIntegrity",
                        "topic": "^ia\\..+\\..+\\..+\\.(?!processValue).+$",
                        "bidirectional": true
                    }
                ],
                "required": [
                    "name",
                    "topic",
                    "bidirectional"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "name": {
                        "$id": "#/items/anyOf/1/properties/name",
                        "type": "string",
                        "title": "Entry Name",
                        "description": "Name of the map entry, only used for logging & tracing.",
                        "default": "",
                        "examples": [
                            "HighIntegrity"
                        ]
                    },
                    "topic": {
                        "$id": "#/items/anyOf/1/properties/topic",
                        "type": "string",
                        "title": "The topic to listen on",
                        "description": "The topic to listen on, this can be a regular expression.",
                        "default": "",
                        "examples": [
                            "^ia\\..+\\..+\\..+\\.(?!processValue).+$"
                        ]
                    },
                    "bidirectional": {
                        "$id": "#/items/anyOf/1/properties/bidirectional",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "title": "Is the transfer bidirectional?",
                        "description": "When set to true, the bridge will consume and produce from both brokers",
                        "default": false,
                        "examples": [
                            true
                        ]
                    }
                },
                "additionalProperties": true
            }
        ]
    },
    "examples": [
   {
      "name":"HighIntegrity",
      "topic":"^ia\\..+\\..+\\..+\\.(?!processValue).+$",
      "bidirectional":true
   },
   {
      "name":"HighThroughput",
      "topic":"^ia\\..+\\..+\\..+\\.(processValue).*$",
      "bidirectional":false,
      "send_direction":"to_remote"
   }
]
}

Environment variables

6 - Kafka Broker

The Kafka broker in the United Manufacturing Hub is RedPanda, a Kafka-compatible event streaming platform. It’s used to store and process messages, in order to stream real-time data between the microservices.

How it works

RedPanda is a distributed system that is made up of a cluster of brokers, designed for maximum performance and reliability. It does not depend on external systems like ZooKeeper, as it’s shipped as a single binary.

Read more about RedPanda in the official documentation.

Kubernetes resources

• StatefulSet: united-manufacturing-hub-kafka
• Service:
  • Internal ClusterIP (headless): united-manufacturing-hub-kafka
  • External NodePort: united-manufacturing-hub-kafka-external at port 9094 for the Kafka API listener, port 9644 for the Admin API listener, port 8083 for the HTTP Proxy listener, and port 8081 for the Schema Registry listener.
• ConfigMap: united-manufacturing-hub-kafka
• Secret: united-manufacturing-hub-kafka-sts-lifecycle
• PersistentVolumeClaim: datadir-united-manufacturing-hub-kafka-0

Configuration

You shouldn’t need to configure the Kafka broker manually, as it’s configured automatically when the cluster is deployed. However, if you need to change the configuration, you can do it by editing the redpanda section of the Helm chart values file.

Environment variables

7 - Kafka Console

Kafka-console uses Redpanda Console to help you manage and debug your Kafka workloads effortlessy.

With it, you can explore your Kafka topics, view messages, list the active consumers, and more.

How it works

You can access the Kafka console via its Service.

It’s automatically connected to the Kafka broker, so you can start using it right away. You can view the Kafka broker configuration in the Broker tab, and explore the topics in the Topics tab.

Kubernetes resources

• Deployment: united-manufacturing-hub-console
• Service:
  • External LoadBalancer: united-manufacturing-hub-console at port 8090
• ConfigMap: united-manufacturing-hub-console
• Secret: united-manufacturing-hub-console

Configuration

Environment variables

8 - Kafka to Postgresql

Kafka-to-postgresql is a microservice responsible for consuming kafka messages and inserting the payload into a Postgresql database. Take a look at the Datamodel to see how the data is structured.

This microservice requires that the Kafka Topic umh.v1.kafka.newTopic exits. This will happen automatically from version 0.9.12.

How it works

By default, kafka-to-postgresql sets up two Kafka consumers, one for the High Integrity topics and one for the High Throughput topics.

The graphic below shows the program flow of the microservice.

High integrity

The High integrity topics are forwarded to the database in a synchronous way. This means that the microservice will wait for the database to respond with a non error message before committing the message to the Kafka broker. This way, the message is garanteed to be inserted into the database, even though it might take a while.

Most of the topics are forwarded in this mode.

The picture below shows the program flow of the high integrity mode.

High throughput

The High throughput topics are forwarded to the database in an asynchronous way. This means that the microservice will not wait for the database to respond with a non error message before committing the message to the Kafka broker. This way, the message is not garanteed to be inserted into the database, but the microservice will try to insert the message into the database as soon as possible. This mode is used for the topics that are expected to have a high throughput.

The topics that are forwarded in this mode are processValue, processValueString and all the raw topics.

Kubernetes resources

• Deployment: united-manufacturing-hub-kafkatopostgresql
• Secret: united-manufacturing-hub-kafkatopostgresql-certificates

Configuration

You shouldn’t need to configure kafka-to-postgresql manually, as it’s configured automatically when the cluster is deployed. However, if you need to change the configuration, you can do it by editing the kafkatopostgresql section of the Helm chart values file.

Environment variables

9 - MQTT Bridge

MQTT-bridge is a microservice that connects two MQTT brokers and forwards messages between them. It is used to connect the local broker of the edge computer with the remote broker on the server.

How it works

This microservice subscribes to topics on the local broker and publishes the messages to the remote broker, while also subscribing to topics on the remote broker and publishing the messages to the local broker.

Kubernetes resources

• StatefulSet: united-manufacturing-hub-mqttbridge
• Secret: united-manufacturing-hub-mqttbridge-secrets
• PersistentVolumeClaim: united-manufacturing-hub-mqttbridge-claim

Configuration

You can configure the URL of the remote MQTT broker that MQTT-bridge should connect to by setting the value of the remoteBrokerUrl parameter in the _000_commonConfig.mqttBridge section of the Helm chart values file.

Environment variables

10 - MQTT Broker

The MQTT broker in the United Manufacturing Hub is HiveMQ and is customized to fit the needs of the stack. It’s a core component of the stack and is used to communicate between the different microservices.

How it works

The MQTT broker is responsible for receiving MQTT messages from the different microservices and forwarding them to the MQTT Kafka bridge.

Kubernetes resources

• StatefulSet: united-manufacturing-hub-hivemqce
• Service:
  • Internal ClusterIP:
    • HiveMQ local: united-manufacturing-hub-hivemq-local-service at port 1883 (MQTT) and 8883 (MQTT over TLS)
    • VerneMQ (for backwards compatibility): united-manufacturing-hub-vernemq at port 1883 (MQTT) and 8883 (MQTT over TLS)
    • VerneMQ local (for backwards compatibility): united-manufacturing-hub-vernemq-local-service at port 1883 (MQTT) and 8883 (MQTT over TLS)
  • External LoadBalancer: united-manufacturing-hub-mqtt at port 1883 (MQTT) and 8883 (MQTT over TLS)
• ConfigMap:
  • Configuration: united-manufacturing-hub-hivemqce-hive
  • Credentials: united-manufacturing-hub-hivemqce-extension
• Secret: united-manufacturing-hub-hivemqce-secret-keystore
• PersistentVolumeClaim:
  • Data: united-manufacturing-hub-hivemqce-claim-data
  • Extensions: united-manufacturing-hub-hivemqce-claim-extensions

Configuration

Most of the configuration is done through the XML files in the ConfigMaps. The default configuration should be sufficient for most use cases.

The HiveMQ installation of the United Manufacturing Hub comes with these extensions:

• RBAC file extension to manage the authentication and authorizations rules for the broker.
• Prometheus extension to expose metrics for a prometheus applications
• Heartbeat extension to allow for readiness checks

If you want to add more extensions, or to change the configuration, visit the HiveMQ documentation.

Environment variables

11 - MQTT Kafka Bridge

Mqtt-kafka-bridge is a microservice that acts as a bridge between MQTT brokers and Kafka brokers, transfering messages from one to the other and vice versa.

This microservice requires that the Kafka Topic umh.v1.kafka.newTopic exits. This will happen automatically from version 0.9.12.

Since version 0.9.10, it allows all raw messages, even if their content is not in a valid JSON format.

How it works

Mqtt-kafka-bridge consumes topics from a message broker, translates them to the proper format and publishes them to the other message broker.

Kubernetes resources

• Deployment: united-manufacturing-hub-mqttkafkabridge
• Secret:
  • Kafka: united-manufacturing-hub-mqttkafkabridge-kafka-secrets
  • MQTT: united-manufacturing-hub-mqttkafkabridge-mqtt-secrets

Configuration

You shouldn’t need to configure mqtt-kafka-bridge manually, as it’s configured automatically when the cluster is deployed. However, if you need to change the configuration, you can do it by editing the mqttkafkabridge section of the Helm chart values file.

Environment variables

12 - Node-RED

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways. It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the Node-RED library.

How it works

Node-RED is a JavaScript-based tool that can be used to create flows that interact with the other microservices in the United Manufacturing Hub or external services.

See our guides for Node-RED to learn more about how to use it.

Kubernetes resources

• StatefulSet: united-manufacturing-hub-nodered
• Service:
  • External LoadBalancer: united-manufacturing-hub-nodered-service at port 1880
• ConfigMap:
  • Configuration: united-manufacturing-hub-nodered-config
  • Flows: united-manufacturing-hub-nodered-flows
• Secret: united-manufacturing-hub-nodered-secrets
• PersistentVolumeClaim: united-manufacturing-hub-nodered-claim

Configuration

You can enable the nodered microservice and decide if you want to use the default flows in the _000_commonConfig.dataprocessing.nodered section of the Helm chart values.

All the other values are set by default and you can find them in the Danger Zone section of the Helm chart values.

Environment variables

13 - Sensorconnect

Sensorconnect automatically detects ifm gateways connected to the network and reads data from the connected IO-Link sensors.

How it works

Sensorconnect continuosly scans the given IP range for gateways, making it effectively a plug-and-play solution. Once a gateway is found, it automatically download the IODD files for the connected sensors and starts reading the data at the configured interval. Then it processes the data and sends it to the MQTT or Kafka broker, to be consumed by other microservices.

If you want to learn more about how to use sensors in your asstes, check out the retrofitting section of the UMH Learn website.

IODD files

The IODD files are used to describe the sensors connected to the gateway. They contain information about the data type, the unit of measurement, the minimum and maximum values, etc. The IODD files are downloaded automatically from IODDFinder once a sensor is found, and are stored in a Persistent Volume. If downloading from internet is not possible, for example in a closed network, you can download the IODD files manually and store them in the folder specified by the IODD_FILE_PATH environment variable.

If no IODD file is found for a sensor, the data will not be processed, but sent to the broker as-is.

Kubernetes resources

• StatefulSet: united-manufacturing-hub-sensorconnect
• Secret:
  • Kafka: united-manufacturing-hub-sensorconnect-kafka-secrets
  • MQTT: united-manufacturing-hub-sensorconnect-mqtt-secrets
• PersistentVolumeClaim: united-manufacturing-hub-sensorconnect-claim

Configuration

You can configure the IP range to scan for gateways, and which message broker to use, by setting the values of the parameters in the _000_commonConfig.datasources.sensorconnect section of the Helm chart values file.

The default values of the other parameters are usually good for most use cases, but you can change them in the Danger Zone section of the Helm chart values file.

Environment variables

Slowdown map

The ADDITIONAL_SLOWDOWN_MAP environment variable allows you to slow down and speed up the polling time of specific sensors. It is a JSON array of values, with the following structure:

[
  {
    "serialnumber": "000200610104",
    "slowdown_ms": -10
  },
  {
    "url": "http://192.168.0.13",
    "slowdown_ms": 20
  },
  {
    "productcode": "AL13500",
    "slowdown_ms": 20.01
  }
]